The plight of the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar has largely been forgotten in recent years, as global attention has turned to crises in other regions. But hundreds of thousands of Rohingya remain displaced and effectively stateless, with the largest number (around a million) in Bangladesh.
In this episode, we talk to Dr. Yeshim Iqbal, Senior Research Scientist at Global TIES (Transforming Intervention Effectiveness and Scale) for Children, New York University. Dr. Iqbal has been closely involved in work that Global TIES has conducted with Rohingya communities in Bangladesh. She is also the founder and director of a suicide prevention hotline for children in Bangladesh.
TIES research has sites all over the world, two of them in Asia - Bangladesh and Myanmar. The projects it conducts are mostly related to childhood education in crisis-affected communities, although TIES is a research organisation rather than an educational provider. In this conversation, we focus on the work done by TIES with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazaar, in southern Bangladesh.
The Rohingya arrived in southeastern Bangladesh in large numbers in 2016-17, having been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, just across the border. Yeshim tells us that they are currently the world’s largest group of forcibly-displaced people living in one place (although there must be competition for that status from Palestinians and groups in southern Sudan, amongst others).
The TIES team conducted an ethnographic study of children in the Rohingya camps in southern Bangladesh. This involved examining and evaluating a ‘play to learn’ programme organised by the BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities) NGO. This involved establishing ‘play labs’ as spaces for children to play. Yeshim explains the difficulty of conducting a conventional survey in a community largely unfamiliar with the concept of sociological ‘research’, with generally low literacy levels, and a very conservative culture where women mostly follow the practice of ‘purdah’.
Most of the refugees arrived in Cox’s Bazaar from Myanmar by foot, with nothing but what they could carry. They initially had little support, and cleared space for themselves by cutting down trees on the forested hillsides of the border region. Today, just a few years later, the camps have already attained a relatively settled, permanent appearance. Rather than conforming to the stereotypical image of a cramped and dirty ‘refugee camp’, the camps (although very congested) have a relatively orderly feel, with spots of beauty.
The Bangladeshi government has been keen to keep the refugees at arms length, and does not want to allow them to attend regular Bangladeshi schools. Whatever education is available is therefore provided within the camps themselves. Rather than regular ‘schools’, this has tended to involve establishment of ‘learning centres’ - child-friendly spaces where children could learn through play. In child development and education research, particularly (but not only) work conducted in the global south, discussion of parenting tends to focus on the role of mothers. However, in this case, the TIES project involved a focus on the role of fathers. This was partly because it was possible - in the refugee camp, most fathers were not going ‘out’ to work. And with the fathers around, wives were often keen for them to be brought into the
discussion with the researchers. So, the BRAC programme was designed in close consultation with fathers. It was delivered by men (not women), who undertook one-to-one discussions with fathers. The initial results, Yeshim says, have been encouraging.
Although the lead researchers of the TIES project are mostly based in New York, it was conducted throughout in close collaboration with local authorities and researchers in Bangladesh, as well as with the refugee community in Cox’s Bazaar.
Related readings:
For more information on TIES, see: https://globaltiesforchildren.nyu.edu/playtolearn
A. N. M. Zakir Hossain. 2023. ‘Educational crisis of Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh: Access, obstacles, and prospects to formal and non-formal education’,
Heliyon Volume 9, Issue 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18346.
Iqbal, Y., Sunny, S., Alif, A., Yoshikawa, H., & Shorna, M. A. (2022). Family Socialization and Experiences of Early Childhood Programs in the Rohingya Camps: Study Protocol. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211062419
